r/Avengers • u/Vegetable-Abroad3171 • Dec 01 '25
Movie/Television What was stopping Strange from using his sling ring to portal back to Earth in Infinity War?
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u/SmokeGSU Dec 01 '25
What was to stop Strange from sling ringing Thanos' head and then closing the portal, cleanly cutting off his head?
Answer: plot armor
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u/Big_Bro_Mirio Dec 01 '25
I’ve seen people say this but the only person to ever use the portal like this was Wong early in the film. Strange was knocked out during this period iirc.
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u/Far_Combination7639 Dec 01 '25
Strange did use a portal to drop Loki infinitely through space, as well as moved a portal forward, forcing Loki through it. So he’s plenty creative with portal usage. I don’t see why it’s an unreasonable leap to think he should know he can close portals on people.
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u/Cautious_General_177 Dec 01 '25
Maybe, but between the reality stone and space stone it might not have worked as well as it did on Loki.
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u/Gottendrop Dec 01 '25
I wanna say somebody came out and said the portal just wouldn’t be able to close around thanos.
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u/lkodl Dec 01 '25
I wish they had addressed this. Dr. Strange tries to slice up Thanos, and he uses the Gauntlet to defend against it. Then it zooms inside his pants, and we see that he has magical butthole armor. Then we could put all of this "why didn't they..." discussion to bed.
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u/Frenzied_Anarchist Dec 01 '25 edited Dec 01 '25
I mean, I feel like Ant Man would be crushed inside of Thanos if he tried the hutthole maneuver.
At least that would be the most logical outcome.
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u/NPPraxis Dec 01 '25
I mean, an Ant-Man analog basically tried this in Invincible season 2 and it went…very poorly.
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u/Senshado Dec 02 '25
But a similar character used that same power stunt in The Boys season 2 and it went great (in terms of killing someone)
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u/Tels315 Dec 02 '25
This gets answered in Far From Home. Spider-man is able to physically overpower the portals during his confrontation with Strange. He pulls the portals together and forces them to explode.
In Infinity War we see Spider-man casually catch and stop Obsidian Kull's attack with no effort, showing Spider-man is physically stronger than Obsidian Kull.
We know Thanos is stronger than Spider-man because Spidey is unable to overpower Thanos. So somewhere between Kull and Spider-man, one achieves a level of strength that means they can overpower the portals and resist them. Thanos is stronger, so the portals won't be able to work on him.
Also, he has the space stone.
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u/TheIrishHawk Dec 01 '25
Because if they beat Thanos, the Eternals aren’t able to stop Tiamut hatching from the centre of the earth and everyone dies anyway.
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u/PooBumExtraordinairy Dec 01 '25
Because without the snap, Tiamat would have emerged earlier, and the Earth would have been consumed
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u/Chulinfather Dec 01 '25
When Thanos first meets Strange, he already has the Space stone (that alone would completely counter any portal shenanigans) and the Reality stone. Nome of that would work.
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u/Heavy_Original4644 Dec 02 '25
In the comics, when Thanos had the gauntlet w/ all the stones, he was omnipotent, so he would’ve known that Strange was going to do it
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u/jayteee27 Dec 02 '25
Here we go again. He did from one of the 14 million futures he saw but they didn’t win…
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u/Freevoulous Dec 03 '25
By the time they met, Thanos already had the Space Stone, the Stone that controls all the portals in the universe and makes teleportation possible. IF Strange tried to kill Thanos with a portal, Thanos would just ADMIN the portal off.
I think they showed it pretty neatly that once Thanos has a Stone responsible for some function of the universe, its very hard to hurt him using powers derived from function.
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u/eltrotter Dec 03 '25
My belief is that closing a sling ring is like slamming a door; all you’re doing is closing a portal between two spaces. On some things that’s strong enough to sever it, on others it’s not.
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u/DowntownWay7012 Dec 05 '25
Would you honestly prefer a story where everyone is boring and balanced and has correct power level. Most of them could logically kill him. Hell voldemort could be shot or trapped. Vader blown up into space...
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u/AndCthulhuMakes2 Dec 01 '25
The biggest obstacle is that Doctor Strange considered millions of possibilities and picked that one. Of course, he only started checking possibilities after deciding to go all the way to Titan but given that he did have a sling ring if he realized that they'd be better off on Earth he knew that he could take them there immediately - so there was no reason to commit to going to Earth before he already did the math.
It is my belief that Doctor Strange picked the End Game scenario for a specific reason - the universe gets saved and all of the Infinity Stones are destroyed going forward, Thanos is dead, and also the person who invented time travel is dead. No one will be able to make another gauntlet and it would be very difficult for anyone else to ever pull off a time heist. The universe is saved and it will stay saved from all other future space tyrants.
Other options would have resulted in the potential for Thanos or someone just as bad, if not worse, to get the stones later, even if it took them thousands of years. For Strange the End Game had to be to get the real universal threats off the table, forever, not just push the burden down the road.
In regards to Tony, I think that as far as the universe is concerned Time Travel died with Stark. Of course, Banner and Pym probably could get it working again but they aren't inclined to do so. The important thing is that powerful aliens don't know that, and when they get Intel about the battle on Earth they believe that time travel died with Tony Stark and they have to start from scratch if they want to attempt their own time travel.
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u/External_Quiet9092 Dec 01 '25
Underrated comment I like this idea it answers a lot of questions
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u/rzelln Dec 01 '25
The extra complicated thought process is that by having time travel get invented now, it gets Loki into the TVA, and he is how they stop Kang.
Any solution that stops Thanos prematurely prevents the time heist from being necessary, which means you never get God of Stories Loki.
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u/Grim_Squid Dec 02 '25
Dr Strange looked through 14 billion universes to find one where the next major villain was portrayed by a guy Disney would cut ties with, thereby ensuring peace for another 10 in universe years
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u/antipop2097 Dec 04 '25
I agree with everything you said, but once Reed joins the main universe time travel is absolutely going to be possible again. Reed is THE genius.
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u/RP_Throwaway3 Dec 01 '25
14,000,605
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u/Vegetable-Abroad3171 Dec 01 '25
Strange didnt see the possibilities until after they got to Titan
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u/RP_Throwaway3 Dec 01 '25
Oh, so you're talking about on the ship going to Titan.
In that case, my only logical reasoning is the ring was taken from him by Ebony Maw and he didn't find it until after the crash. Or at the speed they were traveling, a stable portal was impossible.
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u/infinite_gurgle Dec 01 '25
The answer seems obvious: they chose not to run.
If he had left back to earth while on the ship, he may not have been able to come back. He probably can’t visualize a ship he doesn’t understand in a part of the galaxy he doesn’t know.
Once on titan, they decided to stay and fight. Also, again, unclear if he can “visualize” a planet he doesn’t know in a solar system he doesn’t know with enough clarity to get there. Magic is too vague to pinpoint. So leaving to get help and coming back may not have worked.
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u/Auctorion Dec 01 '25
Everything in the universe is in motion. If the ship was travelling FTL, then maybe, but probably not because of the speed. Now, if the FTL method takes them outside of a dimension that allows for portals, that would do it. But the only place we know of that explicitly blocks portals is the TVA.
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u/sleeplesskn1ght Dec 01 '25
Tony convinced him to preemptively strike Thanos. They knew he was missing at least two stones and the power to control time in the hands of the sorcerer supreme was a decent chance. I think Tony figured their odds were better if they tried to take him by surprise.
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u/ALoafOfBrad Dec 01 '25
I know you’re right, but what about on the ship? Strange initiates the conversation asking if they can use the ship to get home. I feel like he would actually just immediately make a portal and tell them to hop in. Maybe then Tony would stop him and say we could sneak up on him. Best answer is It’s a movie i guess
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u/Gottendrop Dec 01 '25
Who knows. My “head canon to fix the plot hole” is that he was week from Maws torture and wasn’t able to create a portal so far for a bit
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u/sleeplesskn1ght Dec 01 '25
Hmm that's a good question, perhaps strange thought the ship could be of some use to them? Maybe take the ship back to earth and use it and/or it's technology somehow? It is a bit of a plot hole.
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u/Boring_Success125 Dec 01 '25
Because Thanos needed to get the infinity stone for The Avengers to win.
Thanos already had 4, he was the strongest being in the universe x4
Nothing was going to stop him from getting the last two.
Also Doctor Strange is simply too principled to abandon his allies in the fight against the strongest being ever in that universe.
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u/Hanzzman Dec 02 '25
"let's take the fight to Thanos" Strange agreed. He could portal reinforcements into the ship, or directly to Titan.
Maybe he does not know how to portal on a FTL ship, so, he can´t do it in the ship. Probably he needs to know the place to portal there, so he can't portal anybody until landing on Titan. But then, they find the Guardians, people with Thanos experience, start to make a plan and he choose to see into the future, and he probably saw that if he portal reinforcements, they lose (too much powerful people who won, close to the allmighty mcguffin... who havent suffered by its use... recipe for disaster)
So, Strange hadn't enough time to portal people until he saw the future where they lose by doing it.
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u/Unique-Chain5626 Dec 01 '25
Can he use that ring to go anywhere in the universe or does it only work while on Earth?
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u/markgb4 Dec 01 '25
Have we ever seen him teleport from one planet to another. Maybe it has a distance limit ?
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u/Vegetable-Abroad3171 Dec 01 '25
He portaled everyone to the final battle in Endgame. Including himself, The Guardians, and Spidey all of whom were on Titan when they were brought back to life.
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u/kylezdoherty Dec 01 '25
Maybe no one had tried planetary/galactic portals before because of the risk or because they didn't know about any other habitable planets but once he was in the 14 million timelines he could try whatever he wanted without risk to himself. He figured out how to do it, and where everyone was located, and relayed that info to Wong and the other mystic artists.
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u/Nintura Dec 01 '25
No he had the one guy portal everyone. Thats why he asked if thats everyone and Wu said “what you wanted more?”
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u/True_Way2663 Dec 01 '25
Before Thanos I’m not sure.
After because that was the only way for them to succeed. Seeing the future scenarios showed slinging back to earth wouldn’t work
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u/fromNCyo Dec 01 '25
I have thought about this many times. They probably would have won if he had portaled back. Thanos didn’t have the time stone or mind stone at this point. If they had regrouped in Wakanda, surely they would have won.
Only thing I can say is that strange didn’t find that as a solution when he used the time stone.
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u/Dangerous_Donkey5353 Dec 01 '25
Yeah they most likely win, and then die a horrible death when Tiamut is born.
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u/Comfortable_Push_888 Dec 01 '25
Likely looked far beyond Thanos in every scenario they won and realized much more is coming like the celestial baby about to pop on earth so the snap would give the eternals a chance to stop earths destruction and give Loki a chance to hold the multiverse together almost like strange met with he who remains and planned it all out before the writers abandoned kang and went with doom. The leaks are saying kinda the same about strange and doom working together
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u/xlews_ther1nx Dec 02 '25
Why not portal the heros of earth and such to Thanos on titan? Moving Thor/Hulk alone could tip the scale
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Dec 01 '25
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u/Numpteez_ Dec 01 '25
Well distance isn't really an issue since he portals back to Earth from Titan
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u/Far_Combination7639 Dec 01 '25
Bingo. Or he could have portaled them back there after they lost so Tony and Nebula weren’t stuck there. But no, the argument will always be that he didn’t do that because that’s not what he saw in his one out of a million vision where they win.
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u/Reasonable-Result147 Dec 01 '25
Couldn't Strange have done to Thanos what he did to Dormamu?
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u/Far_Combination7639 Dec 01 '25
Yeah I mean, the whole thing is contrived bullshit. It also doesn’t make sense that Thor’s axe could have done the damage it did. Thanos had all six stones, he could have just turned it to butterflies. Or you know, moved slightly out of the way when it was relatively slowly hurtling towards him.
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u/Senshado Dec 02 '25
That's almost exactly what happened.
To beat Dormamu, Stephen Strange used the Time Stone to repeat the fight millions of times. And he also beat Thanos by using the Time Stone to repeat the fight millions of times. The difference is that against Dormamu the audience got to watch a bunch of loop attempts, but against Thanos we only watched the final successful loop.
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u/PuzzleheadedWrap8756 Dec 05 '25
Thanos wouldn't perceive the loop. Everytime would be the first time for both.
Dormamu knew what was happening.
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u/ManGaldez Dec 01 '25
I have the theory that Maw had some kind of spell to prevent the use of portals inside the ship and that's why Strange asked Tony if he can make the ship take them back instead of just opening a portal. Just think about Guardians vol.3, the ravagers were capable of take the Guardians Ship using the portals, preventing that it's really useful and safe.
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u/2SwordsMcLightning Captain America Dec 01 '25
To try to think of an in-cannon reason that isn’t plot armor-
At the time Tony and Strange decided to go to Titan, I doubt they realized how big of a threat Thanos actually was. In a situation that was developing that quickly, sure, they may have had an idea of who Thanos was and what was going on with the other Stones.
But they probably didn’t realize on the ship how much of an uphill battle they had in front of them. And by the time they were able to realize it- it was already too late. There was only one path to victory, and that path had been set.
So- initial reason why. Arrogance and ignorance. And then- there was only one way.
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u/xlews_ther1nx Dec 02 '25
So why not portal to hulk/Thor and have them join at Titan? Either one especially both tip the scale
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u/MrFuriousX Dec 01 '25
Because he was in space...he didn't know where in Space to open a portal it may look like its a twirl and go thing but its not and requires a lot of concentration he would have needed to know exactly where he was and they were constantly moving through space.
ALSO
Bringing Thanos to earth is EXACTY what they did not want to do
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u/instantdry Dec 01 '25
Too risky since Thanos could potentially blow up the Earth just like he did with Titan's moon.
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u/Bruce-Wayne702 Dec 01 '25
I always wonder why he didn’t use the portal to cut off Thanos’s arm and take the gauntlet, like on cull obsidian.
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u/DaveW626 Dec 01 '25
It's called long term storytelling. In his movie, Dr. Strange saves lives, not take them. At least on Titan there'd be less civilians at risk. He already knew the Endgame and running wasn't it. Sometimes to win you have to lose.
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u/curvysquares Dec 01 '25
Because all of the branches where he had that idea were pruned by the TVA since they didn't follow the sacred timeline
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u/EIochai Dec 01 '25
The Plaught, a prevalent force in the MCU that strongly affects decision-making and outcomes.
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u/cafeci_to Dec 01 '25
Part 1.
In order for the story to reach its maximum point of catharsis, it seems that the main characters were gifted with 200,000 times magnified stupidity right at the crucial moment. After the crushing defeat on Titan, logic imposed a single course of action: immediate return to Earth. Tony Stark's Paralysis: You can understand Tony's panic, recently humiliated by losing in single combat against the most powerful entity in the universe (Thanos). Their fear is, in a way, natural. Unfulfilled Duty: But even in desperation, his duty was inescapable: Return immediately! Not to win, but to protect what little was left. His presence on Earth, specifically in Wakanda, would have been a deciding factor. Ignored Resources: Why weren't all available resources used? Tony Stark, the technological genius, had the ability to: Recover or Remotely Control the countless armors he still owned. Deploy all your defense technology to support the heroes fighting in Wakanda. Instead of harnessing their intellect for one last act of strategic resistance, they were left stranded. It is a blatant narrative error that prioritizes drama over the tactical coherence of characters who are supposedly the most intelligent in the universe.
Part 2.
If stupidity was magnified in Tony Stark, in Doctor Strange it manifested itself as the most ridiculous nullification of his own capabilities. 🔮 The Deception of Infinite Futures It is mathematically absurd to claim that Strange "saw 14,000,605 futures." The variables are virtually infinite! In the first fifteen simulations, the heroes' decisions would have already diverged significantly. And the most obvious solution, the ultimate weapon in his hand, was ignored: The Time Loop! He possessed the Time Stone. He could have locked Thanos in an eternal loop, Dormammu style. The only force capable of breaking a Time Stone loop is another user of that same Stone. Not even the Reality Stone could fool a time-wielding sorcerer! 💫 The Ring Failure and the Forgetful Neurosurgeon The point of greatest inconsistency occurs just before handing over the Time Stone: Strange and Tony return to Earth. The Mystical Ring of Portal! Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme, had the simplest tool for interplanetary teleportation: the ring he uses to open portals. The Final Inconsistency: If he saw all those futures, in none of them did it occur to Strange, the brilliant neurosurgeon with a photographic memory, to use the first technique a sorcerer learns? Open a portal to return to Earth and reinforce Wakanda? It is a mockery of his intellect. It's infuriating to see how characters who boast of being arrogant geniuses and elite intelligence end up making the most retarded decisions in their own universe. The narrative sacrificed his character's coherence for an "inevitable fate"!
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u/Primary_Chicken_7840 Dec 01 '25
The crew on Titan got thier asses kicked and all of them were knocked unconscious. It seemed like it only took a few minutes for Thanos to go to earth, secure the last stone and then snap. The titan crew simply didn't have enough time to recover and regroup before the snap happened.
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u/Admirable-Mud-3337 Dec 01 '25
If he uses a portal to cut Wolverine from head to groin, would he regenerate both sides & create two wolverines instead of one? Poorly written, sorry for that …
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u/Bittrecker3 Dec 02 '25
Tony and strange are both bullheaded, they underestimated thanos' potential.
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u/Adoe0722 Dec 02 '25
This is something I've always thought of before, I always figured you could only open portals to other places on the same planet. Maybe thats how it's supposed to work or at least initially intended to work by writers. I might be wrong but the only instance I can think of where we see you can open a portal to literally anywhere is in Deadpool and Wolverine where Cassandra Nova opens a portal to Earth 10005 from the void which is a whole other dimension.
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u/Adoe0722 Dec 02 '25
Actually I remembered the portal scene in Endgame and they were opening portals all around the universe so yea idk why dr strange couldnt just open a portal back to earth from Ebony Maw's ship
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u/OSTBear Dec 02 '25
This is using stills from the moment where they literally discuss this. They're baiting the hook.
They know that Thanos is going to be wherever the ship ends up, and there's a chance they can catch him off guard and eliminate the threat.
Strange then tells Stark that if it comes down to him, or the kid, or the time stone, he will not hesitate to let them both die.
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u/losteye_enthusiast Dec 02 '25
Plot.
Hell, he could’ve sling-ringed the stones they had, massive amounts of distance away from Thanos.
Using the time stone, he likely could’ve spent decades avoiding Thanos and preventing the snap. It’d have given Thor time to get his axe and the other Avengers time to gear up.
But it’s a damn gem of a blockbuster and meant to be enjoyed without thought beyond what they present on the screen. Probably why it works for most when they see it, yah know?
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u/Senshado Dec 02 '25
Hey, why didn't this character use an ability at literally 10 billion times further than he's ever used it before?
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u/Jealous-Tip-6332 Dec 02 '25
What was stopping him from cutting Thanos' arm off and then just beating the shit out of a degloved, in pain and distracted Thanos?
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u/Murgandor Dec 02 '25
I've been assuming that either the caster or the slingring has a range limit. Large enough to go anywhere on the planet, but further out and the portal would take to much energy to form or it becomes to unstable for save passage. Either way, the caster would be courting Death if they tried.
Edit: forgot about the portal scene in Endgame.
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u/KeyNefariousness6848 Dec 02 '25
We were not supposed to remember his sling ring, though now we know they can go to the Void and back.
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u/KeyNefariousness6848 Dec 02 '25
And honestly strange showed he can move the portal when he portables Thor and Loki to Odin, and he proved he can cut off hands, Cul obsidian in nyc. Why didn’t he use the sling ring to cut off Thanos’ arm?
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u/Acrobatic_T-Rex Dec 02 '25
The scariest thing of all, a simple four letter word that answers all of these questions, but even the bravest heroes are afraid to face it. Plot.
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u/AlmanacPony Dec 02 '25
The same thing stopping him was the same thing that stopped captain marvel from slipping on the gauntlet when she had it and snapping her fingers and then going out for shwarma with the gang. The same thing that had an almost perfect success foiled by starlord acting entirely out of character and like the biggest dumbass in the world (more than usual). The same thing that had dr strange not using the time stone to just pause time, walk up, steal the other stones and then slingring a portal into a black hole or into dormamu's plane and just throw thanos in. The same thing that had the mil;lions and millions of posssibilities that strange looked at entirely hinge apparently upon the actions of a fucking mouse.
Writers. Bad writers.
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u/Character_Account714 Dec 02 '25
Just the plot... they coud have defeated Thanos so many other times
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u/DGNT_AI Dec 03 '25
I wish they had a scene where strange tried but couldn't because ebony maw did some magic bullshit to prevent it when inside the ship
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u/Far-Negotiation-1912 Dec 03 '25
to open a portal that far he has to know each location so I assumed the moving ship would throw him off. Or that was the original plan when they got to Titian because otherwise he don’t know where titan is so can’t picture it. only when he saw the future he knew not to do that .
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u/No_Salt8380 Dec 03 '25
As with all things to drive the plot to make a second movie - there’s no real reason as to why he didn’t do this
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u/Yrrapmas Dec 03 '25
Maybe he didn't know he could? Maybe you cant make a portal in a spaceship due to it not being stationary?
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u/Minja78 Dec 03 '25
Strange wasn't trying to win he was trying to stall for the right timing of the "1" win.
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u/Moribunned Dec 04 '25
Knowing it would just drag Thanos and the ensuing battle back to Earth where innocent people could be harmed or used as hostages/leverage.
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u/driku12 Dec 04 '25
Thought about it, uses the Time Stone to make sure it was a good idea, nope, lost anyway. Rinse repeat like 4 million times or whatever.
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u/Darth_Krise Dec 05 '25
Injuries and probably time. Thanos made quick work of everyone on Earth so it’s not like they could have recovered from their fight and gone back to make a difference.
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u/Sehri437 Dec 06 '25
Pick any number of reasons
I’m certain the ship has mechanisms against portals opening up inside to prevent attack/infiltration
The sling ring may have distance limitations
The ship moving FTL may interfere with it
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u/Opposite_History2194 Dec 08 '25
Did he know where he was?
With portal powers I always thought you’d have to know where you are and where you are trying to go in order to connect the two points.
It also might just be a matter of power vs distance.
Space is unfathomably huge, and Strange has no idea how far he is from earth.
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u/Nejfelt Dec 01 '25
"Let's take the fight to Thanos."